An “Airbus of fertilizers” to challenge Europe's dependence on Russia. This is how some French media have dubbed the ambitious project announced by President Emmanuel Macron at the “Choose France” summit, the annual meeting with international business leaders at the Castle of Versailles.
This is a 1,3 billion euro plant for the production of low-carbon nitrogen fertilizers, the result of a European consortium which sees the participation of leading companies in the energy and agri-food sectors. The target? Reduce French fertilizer imports from Russia by 30%, aligning with EU decarbonisation goals.
Question of food sovereignty
Access to fertilizers has become a crucial issue for European agriculture since the beginning of conflict in Ukraine. Russia and Belarus, in fact, are the largest suppliers of these products to the EU, creating a situation of dependence that has proven problematic. Nitrogen fertilizers, in particular, rely heavily on natural gas and have become a symbol of Europe's dependence on Moscow.
Secondo a recent Eurostat report, liquefied natural gas and fertilizers are the only Russian imports that are not decreasing. Although the trend is declining this year, nitrogen fertilizers still account for almost a third of total EU imports.
In this context, the project announced by Macron takes on strategic importance.
This is a world first for the decarbonisation of our agriculture and for our food sovereignty.
Roland lescure, French Minister for Industry and Energy in an interview with the Tribune
A multinational consortium for an ambitious project
The construction of this ambitious plant will be entrusted to the Spanish company FertigHy, which chose France to position itself as a leader in the production of low-carbon fertilizers. Supporting it is a consortium of founding investors from various European countries.
Who will be part of it?
The Spanish solar energy specialist RIC Energy. The Italian engineering company Maire Tecnimont, Siemens Financial Services from Germany, the French agricultural trade group In Vivo, the group Bellows and the Dutch brewery Heineken. It is precisely this multinational composition that has pushed some French media to rename the project "Airbus of fertilizers", inspired by the name of the European aerospace consortium.
The plant aims to produce 500.000 tonnes of nitrogen fertilizer annually from 2030 in the Hauts de France region. Construction is expected to begin in 2027. According to FertigHy, the plant will meet around 10% of the French agricultural sector's consumption. After the French plant, FertigHy plans to build a second in Spain.
Fertilizers for politics and the environment
Fertilizer production is an energy-intensive process and FertigHy's ambition is to align with the EU's decarbonisation objectives and the European Fertilizer Strategy, presented in November 2022. The document urged the European Union to free ourselves from dependence on Russian fertilizers, but develop more environmentally friendly alternatives.
The project's key innovation lies in replacing hydrogen, currently produced from natural gas, with hydrogen produced from electricity. For this reason, the plant will use electricity generated from nuclear and renewable sources, emitting reduced levels of CO2.
Fertilizers, a challenge for Europe
The project announced by Macron represents an ambitious challenge for Europe, not only from a technological and industrial point of view, but also geopolitically. This is in fact a concrete step towards greater strategic autonomy for the EU in a key sector such as agriculture, reducing dependence on external suppliers, in particular Russia.
It must be said: the road towards full independence from Russian fertilizers is still long, but the "Airbus of fertilizers" is a first, important step in this direction. If successful, it could become a model for other similar projects in Europe, helping to redraw the map of the continent's strategic dependencies.
And it will change the face of European agriculture in the 21st century.
